Abdullahi Ali is originally from Somalia. He fled the civil war with his family at the age of five and was then raised in refugee camps in Kenya. He attended University of Nairobi before being resettled in 2009 to Lewiston, ME. In recent years Abdullahi earned his bachelor's degree at USM and this past spring completed his master's degree in Public Administration and Justice Studies at Southern New Hampshire University.

Abdullahi is now the Chief Executive Officer of Gateway Community Services. "Gateway" is a social services organization that opened its doors in October of 2015. They offer culturally sensitive individual and group counseling (anger management, depression, aging, parenting, self image, relational problems) and case management services (employment, housing, immigration, counseling, natural support, education) to immigrants and refugees who are processing a range of losses and atrocities experienced along the way.